The story of how one GM knew exactly what his team was and what it needed, while the other failed to see.
In the middle of January I wrote this column Ranking which Boston sports team is closest to a title. What a difference five weeks makes.
At the time, the Celtics were the clear top choice. Participants in three of the last four Eastern Conference Finals, while flying high on the strength of their two deserving All-Stars, Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown. Since then, Marcus Smart has fallen to injury and in his absence, the holes left on this very incomplete roster can be too easily seen. Just ask the competition whom have bested the Celtics to the tune of an uninspiring below .500 overall record. Not what we forecasted at the turn of the New Year.
In that same piece, I originally placed the Bruins fourth on that list. Despite having a far superior roster to both the Patriots and Red Sox, the rationale was that the Bruins were close, but not quite close enough after the losses of both Torey Krug and to a lesser degree, Zdeno Chara. Absolutely a sure-fire playoff team but in my estimation at the time, the Bruins had an aging core, were missing a little depth and maybe just a little bit of firepower. The overall theory being, that the Bruins were actually the furthest away from a rebuild while at the same time not quite all the way to the peak of the mountain top. A tough place to be as we saw in this town for a few decades prior to their Stanley Cup breakthrough in 2011. Bridesmaids for sure, but not a bride. I also factored in the randomness of NHL Hockey into my thinking, where an eighth seed can rise just as easily as a top seed. Just ask Tampa Bay.
I stand by that original rationale, but some humble pie and a bit of a mea culpa is merited. The Bruins may very well in fact not win the Cup, but they sure as heck can. I believe now and to quote The Fonz, “I was wrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr….."
Enjoying the Bruins on game nights while watching the Celtics struggle to find their way has been eye opening. It’s so clear to me now that the biggest difference between these two winter teams, stands right at the feet of each club’s General Manager. Don Sweeney looked at his roster this fall and knew exactly what he had. Danny Ainge has been in development mode since his coach arrived in 2013, despite his team elevating to the semi-finals in three of the last four years.
For the Bruins, despite losing Torey Krug and Zdeno Chara, Sweeney clearly knew what he had in his young players. He knew who was ready to contribute and how those players (Clifton, Lauzon, Zboril, Frederic, Bjork and more) would fit. He could see the end of the puzzle and knew what pieces he needed to add that would fit the total team suit. Enter Craig Smith.
This 2021 Bruins portrait has quite quickly come into focus and Sweeney’s vision is now so clear for us all to see. It works. The Bruins can skate. They are fast. They can score and most importantly, they are one. They look like they’ve played together for years, even the young guys. That’s a credit to Sweeney understanding how his team mix could work together.
The Bruins are cohesive.
On the flip side with the Celtics, while too many years of precious and countless draft picks piled up, Ainge has failed to see. He’s failed to turn those young assets into players that can help in the present, while NBA Finals opportunity has knocked more than once. He’s failed to add, he’s failed to act and the timing couldn’t be worse as his two coveted stars, Tatum and Brown are groomed to take the next step and win right now. They can’t though because unlike Sweeney, Ainge failed to see.
This is nothing new. I very clearly remember being upset as far back as the 2017 NBA Trade deadline when the Celtics so clearly needed a rebounder/rim protector and failed to act despite being out-rebounded by 10-plus boards per game at the time. The deadline came and Boogie Cousins went for 60 cents on the dollar. Then Nerlens Noel went for next to nothing. Both could have helped then but Ainge failed to act.
It’s an ongoing trend in recent years too. How about last year’s failure to add at the deadline? Or this past offseason? Myles Turner, and Dougie McDermott from the Indiana Pacers were openly and publicly there for the taking, but Ainge refused to move.
Oddly, this recent trend is exactly opposite of how Ainge started in his role leading the Celtics. ‘Trader Danny’ as he was once so frequently called as a wheeler dealer of note has taken on the image of a grizzly old gunslinger in a western movie you’ve seen too many times on too many rainy Saturdays. The old legend, drinking alone in the saloon, living off the handy work of his past. No gun, no bullets and worst of all, an unwillingness to pull the trigger.
Butch Cassidy he perhaps once was, but now? Not so much.
So why the change? Is it the perception that Danny has to ‘win the deal’ that’s getting in the way? If so that’s showing to be a problem. Opportunity has struck to make a run at the Finals while retaining the key cogs in his young core a couple of times now, yet Ainge has again been unwilling to pull the trigger. More frightening, is there an unwillingness across the league to deal with Danny? If that’s the case it’s a really big problem that only has one fix; moving on from Ainge and getting somebody in here that will deal with the Celtics.
You can’t just draft players and sign middling free agents, sometimes you need to trade. Ainge clearly knows this as he’s acted at the deadline before, but it’s been a while. Sure you need to build with the draft and the Celtics have, but it can’t be your only tool. Sometimes you have to be willing to cash in your chips or you know what? You’ll end up around .500 or as it stands today, slightly below.
That’s something I can clearly see. As for Ainge, these days I’m not so sure. Thankfully the Bruins are back on Thursday.